Tags: Diana Ross, penalty, Baggio, World Cup, 1994, America
By Alfie Dunn
It’s always said that in football, penalties are anybody’s game. Statistically, a player should score a penalty at least 7 times out of 10. More specifically, a penalty yields an xG (expected goal) of 0.76 – a quick one for all the statistics nerds. Despite this and how easy an unobstructed shot from 12 yards sounds, there have been some absolutely calamitous attempts over the years.
Everybody has a penalty miss that sticks out in their mind. The most recent England heartbreak draws the mind to the misses suffered by Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley or for those of a potentially older age profile – Gareth Southgate’s miss in the shootout at Euro 96.
However, those who sit in a slightly older age group minds may be immediately drawn to Roberto Baggio’s horrifying effort at the 1994 World Cup in the USA. With his country’s hopes and expectations on his shoulders, the (and it has to be said) brilliantly mulleted Italian stepped up and blazed his effort over the bar. Some say he’s still stood, hands on hips, staring down at the turf at the Rose Bowl.
Since then, Baggio has consistently gone on record saying how that miss forever haunted his career since that day, and gives him a feeling of a shame that he is still unable to shake. But, it turns out, he needn’t worry. His penalty miss, even with all of its ramifications, still wasn’t the worst that millions of fans saw, even at that tournament.
That accolade goes to the one and only… Diana Ross?
Yep, you’re reading that right. The former lead singer of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, The Supremes and already boasting a seriously impressive solo career, Diana Ross was booked to perform at the opening ceremony of the 1994 World Cup.
The performance was going all to plan, with Ross running half of the length of the field whilst performing hit song, ‘I’m Coming Out’ whilst being surrounded by hundreds of members of a marching band.
At the peak of the song, Ross reached the 18 yard box unimpeded, which, you have to say, if you were the actor booked to play the role of goalkeeper in the ceremony, you’d be quite rightly fuming with.
Then, in shades of Man United v Arsenal in 2004, a penalty was awarded for absolutely nothing. All that was left for Ross to do after completing her mazy run was to stick it in the back of the net. A simple task surely?
You would think so, especially in an entirely scripted sequence. For good measure, knowing that she was going to score and there’s nothing the keeper could do about it, Ross threw a few stutters into her run up (so that’s where Neymar got it from…), stepped up and sliced it at least 5 yards wide of the target, which then hilariously split into 2 in an array of pyrotechnics, assuming that the strike was on target.
What’s even funnier about this particular miss is that the keeper even went the right way. In a completely scripted scenario, the keeper still had it covered, which makes you only think that Ross was meant to put it to the right hand side of the goal.
However, you’ve got to admire the mentality of Ross to move straight on after this, quite frankly, shocking effort. As mentioned previously, Baggio stayed at the penalty spot for what seemed like an eternity after his miss, even whilst the victorious Brazilians were celebrating all around him. Many players after a miss often look at the turf, potentially throwing a stamp on the ground in for good measure in an attempt to shift blame to the poor groundsman who’s been prepping the pitch for at least 5 days prior to the match.
But not Diana Ross. She ran straight straight through the net as it split in two, straight onto a stage that had been erected directly behind the pitch and carried on singing and dancing. A true mentality monster in face of real penalty adversity, something we can all aspire to be after maybe doing the most embarrassing possible in football. Maybe best to wait until your teammates calm down before you try and follow in Ross’ footsteps though.
Whichever way you look at it, there’s probably not a goal wide enough in the world that would have seen Ross’ penalty scored; but there definitely ain’t no mountain high enough to stop her celebrating regardless.
(Photo courtesy of Peter Robinson)